The invention relates in general to fuzes and safety and arming (S&A) devices and in particular to non-inertial, non-spin S&A devices.
To assure safety in the transportation, handling, and deployment of military hardware with explosive components, munition-fuze safety standards such as MIL-STD-1316 or STANAG 4187 require that two unique and independent aspects of the launch or deployment environment be detected in the weapon fuze system before the weapon can be enabled to arm. Examples of aspects of the projectile launch environment that are sensed electronically or mechanically in existing munition system S&A devices include, but are not limited to, setback acceleration, rifling- or fin-induced spin, and gun- or launch-tube exit or airflow/drag due to high velocity travel.
S&A devices for conventional military munitions may use setback (i.e. gun-launch) acceleration and projectile spin as inertial inputs or environments to effect arming. However, some tube- or gun-launched munitions may not utilize bore rifling to spin the projectile. And, other munitions, such as hand grenades or mines, may not be launched from a gun or tube platform and, therefore, may lack spin and setback accelerations entirely.
Some prior S&A devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,316,186, “Air-Powered Electro-Mechanical Fuze for Submunition Grenades,” issued 8 Jan. 2008 to Robinson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,231, “Miniature MEMS-Based Electro-Mechanical Safety and Arming Device,” issued 15 Nov. 2005 to Robinson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,631 to Smith et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,650 to Garvick et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,809 issued on Jan. 2, 2001 to Robinson et al., entitled “Ultra-Miniature Monolithic, Mechanical Safety-and-Arming Device for Projected Munitions”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,910 to Last et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,906 issued on Dec. 2, 1997 to Van Sloun and entitled “Electro-Mechanical Safety and Arming Device”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,107 issued on Jan. 4, 1994 to Weber et al. and entitled “Gun-Launched Non-Spinning Safety and Arming Mechanism;” and pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/434,093 filed on May 1, 2009 entitled “Ultra-Miniature Electro-Mechanical Safety and Arming Device” and having the same assignee as this application. All the above-listed patents and patent applications are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
All of the devices in the aforementioned patent literature use at least one of the following environments to achieve electro-mechanical safety and arming: setback acceleration during gun- or tube-launch, rifling or fin-induced spin, and gun- or tube-launch exit and airflow/drag due to high velocity projectile travel.
A long-felt and unsolved need exists for an apparatus and method for the safety and arming of explosive hardware without the use of or necessity for setback acceleration, projectile spin, or airflow drag. Such an apparatus and method may enable wide application of explosive components, for example, across different weapons systems or platforms, and may increase the safety of munitions which could not previously take advantage of advanced safety features.